CHAPTER 4 GUIDE
Making It Yourself: 3D Printing and Other Small-Batch Goods
In short
If you make your own products, you already know the making isn't the only work. There's designing, testing, working out materials, keeping the machines busy, tracking what's been made and figuring out what each item actually costs you.
What a bot can and can't do here
Let's be clear first. A bot isn't going to run your printer, pour your candles or sew your bags.
The making bot
- Its description might read:
- "You help me plan production for my 3D printed home products. Keep track of my product list, the print settings and material for each, how long each takes and what each costs to make. Plan a weekly print queue from my orders and stock levels. Keep a list of materials and tell me when something is running low. Never buy materials without my approval."
Design ideas
Your research bot from Chapter 2 found complaints in reviews. The making bot can turn those into design ideas.
Is the design yours to sell?
Many makers start by printing designs downloaded from model-sharing websites. That's fine for personal use.
Testing and logging
When you test a new design, the details matter. What settings did you use?
Costing each item
Here's a job most makers do roughly or not at all: working out what each item really costs to make.
The print queue
Once orders come in, you need to know what to print and when. If you have one printer, the queue matters.
Materials
Running out of filament, wax or fabric halfway through a batch is a classic small-shop problem. The making bot can keep a list of what you have and what each product uses, and warn you when something's getting low.
Other kinds of making
If you don't print, the same ideas apply.
Walkthrough: costing one print
Here's how the Shelf Life owner worked out what the clamp-on cable organizer really costs to make.
What went wrong: the borrowed design
Before setting up the bots, the owner had listed prints of a popular downloaded design, a neat little phone stand. A few weeks in, they got a polite message from the designer: the license said non-commercial use only.
A worked example: the materials reorder
One Thursday, the making bot warned that black filament would run out by Monday at the current print queue. It compared three sellers the owner had used before, listed the price per spool, delivery time and whether each had the same brand in stock, and built a cart at the cheapest one that could deliver by Saturday.
Questions people ask
Can a bot design products for me? It can suggest ideas and describe them.